For two months, the US company UPS hasn't made any home deliveries to Malmö's blighted district of Rosengård, citing accompanying risks, the Swedish newspaper Expressen reported; approximately 90 percent of the neighbourhood's population is not ethnically Swedish.
The story made national headlines when Marco Padoan, a freelance photographer and a father of two, received a UPS message instead of a parcel, explaining that his area is no longer serviced because the company doesn't want to expose its drivers to the risk of being robbed or otherwise attacked.
A UPS employee confirmed to the newspaper Sydsvenskan that the company's drivers have been attacked, which had prompted management to put a halt to deliveries to Rosengård.
UPS explained that it suspended delivery services to the area two months ago. In addition to Rosengård, there are also a number of areas in Stockholm where it applied the same rules.
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UPS explained to Sydsvenskan that the suspension of service won't last forever, yet stressed that is unclear when deliveries to Rosengård will be resumed.
Marco Padoan insisted that the move was unfairly discriminatory.
"This is discrimination and rough generalisation on their part", an indignant Padoan told Expressen. "I live here with my family and we enjoy it very much, I do not understand their decision." Padoan ventured that the decision was the result of bad rumours that keep circulating.
Rosengård, an immigrant-dominated neighbourhood, has gained particular notoriety in recent years due to a spike in violent crime, such as gun violence and armed robberies. Plagued by unemployment and poverty, Rosengård has made the list of Sweden's "vulnerable areas", which some media and local politicians refer to as "no-go zones", although the government itself firmly rejects using this term.
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Nevertheless, police and first aid admitted that fulfilling their mission in these neighbourhoods was difficult, due to gangland violence and general animosity. In 2018, Sweden's government-run postal service, PostNord, halted mail delivery to some addresses in Malmö, as well as the troubled Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby, also a "vulnerable area", to use the official parlance.
About half of Malmö's 330,000 residents are of foreign descent, and the city is often touted as Sweden's most multicultural city. In Rosengård, the percentage of immigrants hovered around 90 percent as far back as 2008, according to Dagens Nyheter.
All in all, over a quarter of Sweden's population of 10 million is of foreign descent.
